POETRY | LIT ANGST & LOSS

Enough Is Never Enough

A write-yourself-out poem

no matter what you say or do

write at your own pace we want “authentic you” spill blood on the page not one vein but two

one poem per week now how about three perhaps you could edit a publication or two (behind the wanting scenes)

pump push produce

can’t shine the light hot enough on myself to blister my plump wanting flesh

enough is never enough they take what you need

push pimp produce

(in the land of the assumptive-created community we care about your health art semantics spirituality your engagement is only pseudo-qualitative

you had better be best at hitting the response button pavement or recognize your demise should at minimum be described in a grace note)

enough is never enough

pump pimp produce

don’t you see with all those years of Insta-therapy preaching of body love and positivity soul-excavation by rusty spoon with no apologies while stories spill over and stain your pink goose pimpling skin-sense crying and chanting with ozempic and we(no)govy ease

too much of the you of you is more than enough (they have pills to shrink you down and cover you all up)

produce push seduce

why ask where my self-esteem is?

are you sure we’re playing the same reindeer games?

you assume i want the same results derive the same meaning lay myself bare for critique willingly sacrifice that part of me

from the twenty-one variations of communal engagement compounded by writing genres and styles multiplied by prompt powers carried by challenges divided by Slack and Discord to the eighth editing power

pomp primp reduce